WordPress SEO: 20 Tips and Best Practices Part#2

11. Set the URL slug according to SEO.

By default, WordPress sets the URL to the full title of the post or page. This is rarely ideal because it is usually long, and long URLs are cached in search results.

For more SEO-friendly URLs, click "Edit", enter your keyword (or a nearby variable), and replace spaces with dashes.

URL slug in WordPress

12. Use headers to create rankings.

Headers build structure and help viewers and search engines better understand the ranking of your content.

In WordPress, you can use the WYSIWYG editor to quickly and easily add relevant headers. Just click the "Paragraph" dropdown, and you'll see six header options:

Heading tags in WordPress

Side note. If you have a WordPress billelp:

Keep visitors to your site.

Promote the "authority" of your other content and rank the content.

You can add internal links to posts and pages in WordPress using the WYSIWYG editor. Simply highlight the text you want to use as an anchor, click the "Insert / edit link" button, and paste it into the URL of another page or post on your website.

13.dding internal links to WordPress

Side note. Again, things may look a little different if you're using a block editor, but the process is pretty much the same.

If you are not sure where and where to include internal links, sign up for a free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) account, run a crawl in Site Audit, then link opportunities to see relevant internal link suggestions. Go to report:

Tips for Internal Links in Site Audit

For example, you can see above that it suggests that we link the phrase "link building strategies" in our guide to bad links in our list of internal link building strategies.

14. Add alt text to images.

Alt text is important because it:

Tells Google who the images are about, which can help them rank higher on Google Images.

Improves accessibility for visually impaired visitors using screen readers.

Replaces a broken image on the page if the image is broken.

To add ALT text to WordPress, fill in the "Alt text" field when uploading the image:

Adding ALT text to images in WordPress

Side note. Again, things may look a little different in the block editor, but there is still an "alt text" field.

Just try to keep it short and sweet while being explanatory.

Suggested Reading: Alt Text for SEO: How to Improve Your Images

15. Write a great title tag.

Google usually uses your title tag for snippets in search results.

Yoast sets your title tag as the default for your post or page title. This is often okay, because you should have already created an attractive post title. But sometimes it is too long, so it is possible to manually paste the full title to make sure it is not too short.

If it turns green, you're ready. If it turns red, it is too long.

Adding title tags to WordPress using Yoast SEO

You can usually solve the problem of long title tags by removing any excess information. Easy ways to do this include:

Deleting information in brackets.

Remove unnecessary words.

Refreshing

16. Write a great meta description.

Meta descriptions are not a direct factor in Google's rankings, but Google often uses them for snippets of search results.

For this reason, it is important to write a strong meta description that will support your title and make people click more.

Here are some tips to help you do just that:

Double search intent.

Use an active voice.

Keep it to less than 120 characters

Suggested Reading: How to Write Perfect Meta Description.

17. Nest pages in subfolders

Assuming you have set your personal structure to the post name, your page and post URL will look like this:

domain.com/post-name

domain.com/page-name

But with pages, you can create them with different levels using subfolders.

For example, suppose you are a digital marketing agency offering three different services: SEO, PPC, and social media marketing.

The best way to create it is:

Create a "Services" landing page that lists the services you provide.

Create individual pages for each service you offer

Link to each service page from your "Services" page.

Here's what your URL structure will look like by default:

domain.com/services/

domain.com/seo/

domain.com/ppc/

domain.com/social-media-marketing/

That sounds fine. But it's best to crawl individual service pages under the "/ services /" subfolder like this:

domain.com/services/

domain.com/services/seo/

domain.com/services/ppc/

domain.com/services/social-media-marketing/

It's easy to do in WordPress. Just use the "Parent" dropdown on the page editor and select the "Services" page.

Nesting pages in WordPress

Recommendation

The next three tactics are about page speed. Use them to speed up your website and improve its performance. Note that we have not covered all of your optimizations here, as page speed is a complex topic. So if you want to take a closer look at this aspect of things, read our complete guide to speed up your WordPress website.

18. Install WP Rocket.

WP Rocket describes itself as a web performance plugin that speeds up your page. The beauty of the plugin is that it creates a bunch of useful fixes, including browser and server caching.

Here's what caching does:

Browser caching - saves common files on visitors' hard drives so they don't have to re-download when they visit again.

Server caching - so that when static versions of your web pages are stored on your serverng plugins are available.

19. Shorten the code.

Minification removes unnecessary white space from your code to reduce file size.

Small vs. uninterrupted code

Enabling minification is fairly easy if you are using WP Rocket. Just go to file optimization settings and check the "minimize CSS files" and "minimize javascript files" options.

Minification in WP Rocket

If you are not using WP Rocket, give Automatize a shot (it's free).

Warning

Enabling Manifolds may break features in some cases. So before you deploy Live, it's always a good idea to evaluate how it affects your website in the staging environment.

20. Install short pixels.

ShortPixel automatically compresses and refines the images you upload to WordPress. It minimizes image files, reduces stress on your server, and loads things faster for your viewers.

To get started, install the plugin, activate it, then enter your API key in settings.

Note that ShortPixel is a free meme plugin. So if you're compressing more than 100 images each month, you'll need to buy some credit or sign up for a paid plan. It only costs a few dollars and in my opinion it is worth the money.

If you have a budget for a paid project, it's also worth hitting the option to bulk optimize images already uploaded to WordPress.

Resize images using ShortPixel

Final thoughts

WordPress is flexible, easy to use, and provides a good foundation for SEO. But it can only get you because it's just a CMS. If you're serious about ranking on Google, you'll need to do a few more things.

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